Haddocky Fishy Yummyness

Ingredients

• Haddock skinned,
• thinly sliced pancetta chopped,
• garlic crushed,
• creme fraiche,
• butter.

Directions

1. Little butter, fry off pancetta and take out the pan and reserve for later. Put in the haddock on a low heat for about 5 mins, add garlic and add pancetta and creme fraiche cook till all heated through and add some chopped chives.
2. Serve with cheesy mash (Spuds cooked in half water, half milk,drain then put a quarter of the cooking liquid back into the pan, mash with a potato ricer, add a mound of Red Leicester, chives and some mushed up garlic. Few green veg to finish it all off.

Bacon Ribs and Split Pea Soup

I love pressure cookers. Aside from the scary noise, which one does get used to. Kinda.

This is a pressure cooker recipe.

bacon ribs cut into individual ribs
1 onion very roughly chopped
3 carrots sliced thickly
ground black pepper
yellow split peas

Boil the ribs in the pressure cook with the lid off for ten mins and remove any scum off the top of the water, then pour out about half of the water.
Put the other ingredients in the pan put in enough water to cover the ribs and veg and put lid on. Bring to the boil and when the pressure cooker start hissing quite loudly turn it down to a gentle hiss and time for 15 mins.

You should only use a third full of the cooker of the split peas, or any legumes, and there is also a certain amount of stock/water one should use too. Be careful. Too many carrots makes it too sweet.  Not removing enough of the cooking liquid after the first cooking of the ribs can make it too salty.  Reserve some of the “salty” liquid in case it’s not salty enough….no point adding extra new salt if you already have some in the waste liquid now…..

Ta to my Dad for this.  I had to write it down else I was in danger of ringing him up each time I wanted to cook bacon ribs.

Fish Tagine

This I cannot claim to be my own made up recipe.  It’s a Rick Stein one, it’s on the BBC website for anyone wanting to check. It’s STUNNING…it’s a must try recipe.  I was supposed to be cooking this for dinner tonight but ate a sandwich around 6pm and couldn’t be arsed to make it.  Tomorrow….well, today really.  It IS after midnight after all.

I did make some small changes…..

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for brushing
2 celery sticks, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
¼ preserved lemon, finely chopped  (I used a jar of preserved lemons, the type that you might use in a cocktail)                    4 plum tomatoes, sliced
600ml/1 pint fish stock
8 small new potatoes, cut lengthways into quarters
2 red mullet, ocean perch or grey mullet, weighing about 450g/1lb each, filleted (I used Mahi Mahi)
8 black olives, halved
1 tsp chopped fresh coriander
1 tsp chopped fresh mint
salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the charmoula:
2 tbsp roughly chopped fresh coriander
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1½ tsp ground cumin
½ red finger chilli, seeded and chopped roughly
½ tsp saffron strands
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon, juice only
1½ tsp paprika
1 tsp salt

Method

1. For the charmoula, put all the ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth.
2. Heat the oil in a large pan, add the celery, carrot and onion and fry gently for 5 minutes, until softened but not browned.
3. Add half the chopped preserved lemon, 2 tbsp of the charmoula, the tomatoes and the stock.
4. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes, then add the potatoes. Simmer for 6-8 minutes until tender.
5. Preheat the grill to high. Brush the fillets of fish with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and then cut each diagonally in half.
6. Grill, skin-side up, for about 6 minutes.
7. Stir the olives, the rest of the charmoula and the remaining preserved lemon into the sauce and check the seasoning.
8. Put the fish in four warmed soup bowls, spoon over the sauce and sprinkle with the chopped coriander and mint.

Changes to original recipe:

My alterations were in the pan with the celery et al I put a cinnamon stick and i put the potatoes in at the start too. I used a fish called Mahi Mahi (from Sainsbury’s, never seen it anywhere else) instead of the suggested, and as it holds it’s shape well I put it in with the olives and left it for a few minutes longer to cook right through sooner than grill it. I wanted the flavours to get right into the fish. I also chucked in 3 handfuls of couscous at that time to thicken it up a bit.

I reckon monkfish would be good in it too.
It was really really good.

Thai Green Curry

Ingredients
some king prawns
7oz new potatoes, par-boiled
4oz sugar snap peas, blanched
2 red peppers, blanched
1 red onion
1 can coconut milk
2 limes, juice and zest

For the curry paste
bunch of coriander
1 red and 1 green chilli
2 cloves garlic
1 stalk lemongrass
1 thumb size piece of ginger

Method
1. To make the Thai curry paste – put the garlic, ginger, coriander stalks, chopped lemongrass, and chopped ginger with a drop of oil, to the food processor and whizz.
2. Add paste to a hot pan with a drop more oil and cook for a minute.
3. In the same processor add the coconut milk, lime juice and zest and coriander and blitz, don’t waste any of the curry paste mixture!.
4. Stir the vegetables and prawns into the paste and pour over the coconut milk.
5. Season and cook till prawns are cooked.

Some kind of comfort food

This is an “off the cuff” comfort food recipe.

Ingredients

tbsp olive oil
3 chorizo sausages (not the proper chorizo, but chorizo flavoured sausages, I buy them from the local farmers market – they are not as er…hard as traditonal chorizo, but have a typical sausage texture with all the flavour)
2 black banger sausages (pork and black pudding)
half an onion finely chopped
2 cloves smoked garlic
tbsp hot smoked paprika
3 large sprigs thyme
1 courgette chopped
1 stick celery finely chopped
half a butternut squash in small dice
button mushrooms
tablespoon of “chair de tomate” from sainsburys (or chopped fresh toms or a couple of plum tomatoes and a bit of tom puree)
green beans
fresh peas
1 pint chicken stock
1 tin cannellini beans
loads of fresh parsley

Fry off the sausages in olive oil, then slice up and fry off again, add garlic and onion and fry till soft.
Add smoked paprika and the tomato mix and fry for a minute or two to combine the flavours.
Add the butternut squash and mushrooms, and the stock. Cook for about ten mins then add the chicken stock and the rest of the vegetables.

When heated through add the canellini beans, heat them through add the parsley and eat!

I made it with some left over fresh egg pasta and some roasted veg.